*ahem*

My apologies for not getting a post up yesterday. Working to remedy the situation ATM.

Updated thread

Within the computer systems were no information on:


You did findo ut and confirm the following:


If anything is unclear or you need more info, just ask

How big is the comet again?

crud ... multiple kilometers, I forget what I said exactly

checked my PMs to Fox - its abotu 10 miles long and half as wide at the narrowest, roughly peanut shaped.

That gives it a Volume of something like 200 cubic miles.

Volume of a Cylinder 10m x 5x (diameter) = 196.35

Or something like 900 cubic kilometers.
Or 9 x 10^11 cubic meters.

1000kg of pure water = 1 cubic meter
I.e. 1 metric ton of water per cubic meter.
So if it were only ice it'd be about 9 x 10^11 metric tons.

Being rock and ice we can probably double that.
Call it 5 x 10^12 tons.

Ignoring stamina, once a round Doug could throw half his lift weight far enough so that it'd be a different rock. 20 rounds in a minute... If Doug worked non-stop on it for a month he'd remove about 2 x 10^7 tons of it. Lifter would be worse... Shockwave might help but I suspect not enough.

So we have a big problem.

I think the only way to do this is to put a nuke inside the thing, probably using Warp and someone like Anna.

*shakes head* Courier, sometimes you can math the fun right out of the game.

Actually, if this is Halley's Comet, we don't have to estimate things.

The physical characteristics of Halley's should be well known by now...

If the orbit of it hasn't shifted (which it must have), it also fixes the game date at 2061.

But I seem to recall a mention that it's orbit was changed at some point.

However, it's density is only .6 that of liquid water. So its mass is considerably less than what you have there. It may not be "solid" either...but rather a loose pack of still more or less distinct chunks.

First, define the problem.

I'd been hoping to make a math argument that Doug could just go up there and tear the thing apart... but at a rate of 0.01% per month that's just not going to happen.

Breaking it apart would be easier than throwing it, massive move throughs and the like, but what we really come down to is it's a big hairy problem and out of reach for most normal powers.

Anna could probably help somewhat with powermaxes... but that's pretty close to "loss of character" if she has to pull that card out multiple times.

What we really need is Gravity Manip + Mastery or Quantum Inferno.

We think it was moved to it's current orbit by a Nova, probably a nova with Gravity Manip + Mastery but that's speculation.

Dropping it from 2.0 to .6 isn't even close to enough, and I think that assumes it's a loose pack.

Granted, we're working off very rough figures, and ST could shift them up or down, but the scale of this thing puts it out of reach of the common nova (which I gather was the point).

Depending on how it is used, Quantum Construct could be helpful. A flaming mole that melts its way to the interior, where we can drop in a nuke. Then Anna could seal up the hole.

Or:

A giant, super-strong flying beastie could help Doug alter its trajectory. It only needs to be moved far enough that it skips off the atmosphere.

*headdesk* Oy! ... Seriously!? *sigh*

oh and Lily, the year is 2118 the abby war ended in 2061 (the last/next time Haleys IS due our way)

Courier, true. The scale is far too big for any "conventional" force to make much impact on in the timeframe we're looking at.

Ironically, grav manipulation was one thing I was considering for Ash...but it felt kind of metagamey (as did mental powers) once Raphael disclosed the comet.

Besides, even if I had, she'd be a looooong way from mastery.

Seriously, I'd thought I'd found a way around all this... but apparently not. Even with the massive cheat I found, i.e. doing things per round rather than in one big move, we're still about 5 orders of mag short of where we need to be.

Don't mind me, I should have expected that this kind of thing would happen. Of course just because I said it's Haley's doesn't mean it is and it certainly doesn't mean that the rouge nova(s) may not have plumped their missile up for a more definite kill shot.

You know...if it's peanut shaped, that means there's a structural weak point. The narrower bridge between the two bulges. Of course, making two slightly-less super (but still super) comets wouldn't necessarily be an improvement.

It would if they miss us.

Well yeah. We can't tell that without more in-game information though.

Sadly, not sure if Ash can be much help on this one...

Also of note...I liked the update, but I'm not sure where to go with it next.

I assume some abber...er...novas will be coming to visit?

yeah I'm expecting that you guys want to have your little pow-wow

but I decided to leave it up to you folks as to who goes and all that

Business trip starts tomorrow from Sun to Fri, my net access will be infrequent.

Raider isn't going to leave Anna alone there.

I suspect Gregory will hear her before Doug does...

Fox/Raider - Anna is too heavy for you to attune her I believe. Anna - that is correct right?

Downsized she weighs in at a whopping 440 pounds - quadruple that if she is fully grown.

looks like Joani - but is it?

Well crap.

I guess it doesn't really matter much though, since Squiddy doesn't really need physical proximity.

Guess Anna will have to stay in our rooms, and bar the door.

We're lucky Anna didn't go to meet Ash. I guess she would have scared the bejeezus out of her... out of Anna I mean

nice post Joani

Nice. Squidward is a scorpion, and a rabid one at that. We know he's a scorpion though, and we know that it is his nature, and sooner or later we will have to pluck that stinger off the end of his venomous tail.

Hee hee

I'm not trying to be obstinate, guys...I just can't see her entering any kind of alliance with squiddy. But! If it helps, there's no way her band could realistically threaten any operations at this point, so she's all talk.

Then, later on, circumstances will conspire and force her to seek your aid on a more personal level...at which point ideally we'll learn to get along.

At least you keep the game driving. It has come out of a semi active game to a very driven one which I enjoy very much. I'm still waiting to get more involved with Anna, unfortunately the circumstances are very limiting for her. I fear Ash and Anna won't be friends if you consider how aberrated Anna looks like.

Not so!

In fact, I anticipate Anna being very helpful to Ash, over time, in overcoming her prejudices. The juxtaposition of physical deformity over her gentle nature will be initially a barrier, but with time will make Ash realize that 'aberrant' isn't just a question of mutation and power.

...though, just to warn, there will be prejudice at first.

Thats Anna's theme - I'm really looking forward meeting you ingame!

Doug is coming up to that point...

I'm back - safe to say that at least the bulk of you folks are waiting on me. I'll try to oblige soon but I have an Inbox full of work emails to dig through first.

I know basically what Fox was intending but not specifically so if he doesn't get a chance to update for Raider I will provide at least a small update fo